Heavy Duty Auto Paint Detailing

My brother wanted to get rid of his 2005 Saab 9-2X Aero, so I offered to detail it for him to make it a bit more presentable.

It lived a bit of a hard life, outside in the mean elements of Rochester, NY. Here's a before picture. This is right after being washed. You can see the paint has some heavy etching and swirl/scratch marks:

The process to get this thing cleaned up was pretty straight-forward, although massively time-consuming.

Step 1: Wash with Dawn.

Step 2: Clay bar with Meguiar's detail lubricant.

Step 3: Meguiar's 105 Ultra-Cut compound on Lake Country Orange pad with Porter Cable 7424XP Dual-Action polisher.

Step 4: Meguiar's 205 Ultra-finishing polish on Lake Country Black pad with Porter Cable 7424XP Dual-Action polisher.

Step 5: Finish with Rejex Polymer Paint Sealant on Lake Country Black pad with Porter Cable 7424XP Dual-Action polisher.

This is what they call a "50-50" shot. The left half is post-wash, but before any other steps (between Steps 1 & 2). The right half shows after all the polishing, and before the final sealant (between steps 4 & 5).

All finished!

The reflections here show a much smaller amount of defects in the paint. I didn't get it perfect, but probably 90% of the way there.

Some outside shots. Unfortunately I finished later in the day, so I couldn't get the sun reflection pictures to really show the state of the paint. However, since I didn't get it perfect, maybe that's better.

Interior. Didn't do much here, just a vacuum and wipe-down with some conditioner.

Low mileage:

The car looks a lot better. Hopefully it will sell quickly.

Litecoin Mining

My buddy showed me how to turn electricity into money.

One of my friends, Michael, has been in on cryptocurrencies for years, well before the recent popularity (and value) explosion. I've followed his (successful) exploits for awhile, but have been too skeptical to try it out for myself.

Michael recently expressed interest in building another Litecoin (a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency, very similar to Bitcoin) mining computer, and offered to let me in on the investment. A mining computer essentially finds solutions to one single math problem as fast as it can. When any of the solutions fit a particular pattern, you have "mined" a coin, which is worth money. The faster the computer can try different solutions, the better your chances of finding a coin. The details are quite complex, but if anyone is interested in hearing my best attempt at an explanation that most anyone could understand, let me know in the comments.

Mining computers tend to generate a large amount of heat, using nearly 1,000 Watts of power, so they are typically built in non-traditional cases. In fact, the most popular case is a modified milk crate zip-tied up to hold all the components (power supply, motherboard, graphics cards). I offered to design and build a simple aluminum frame to make our "rig" a little classier.

Our particular machine uses (4) AMD R9 270 graphics cards to mine at a rate of around 1.8Mh/S (mega-hashes per second), meaning it can find 1.8 million solutions per second.

At the current difficulty (which changes every 3 days) and price (which changes every second), this rig makes about $9 per day after electricity costs. The frame is 1/8" 6061 aluminum angle. This shot is preliminary testing; the motherboard mounting is still to be done here:

Everything in place and running nice and cool:

Here's a screenshot of the stable mining performance, running at 1.84MH/s.  We'll probably tweak the settings some more to try extract more performance from the machine.

The real goal is to sell this machine as a turn-key solution, then build another if it's profitable. Rinse. Repeat.

Race Car

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to me!

While going to track days in your street car is generally quite fun (until something breaks, at which point it becomes not fun and stressful [how am I going to get home?!]), it's nothing compared to piloting an actual race car. Purpose-built machinery does away with the compromises and leaves the raw experience laid bare to enjoy unfiltered. Race cars are louder and faster. Win and win.

I've been taking my 2003 Corvette Z06 to the track off and on and racing a 125-cc TAG kart (maybe a little too unfiltered?) for a few years now. Both activities are quite fun, but I'd really like to buy a real race car and line up at some SCCA events. But that's a big commitment; it would be nice to try the race car I'm thinking about before making the $30,000 investment that would include the car, trailer, spares and licensing fees.

Enter Spec Racer Sports, a race shop located at the MSR Houston race track near Houston, TX. They specialize in Spec Racer Ford (SRF) race cars, the second largest racing class in the SCCA (behind Spec Miatas). I wanted to try SRF's because they are purpose built cars, relatively cheap, and have a lot of entries each race, and Spec Racer Sports rents them out for test days. I decided (well, was allowed by my wife) to rent one to try out for the day as my birthday and Christmas present for the year! This is an account of what went down.

I made it to the track around 8am and pulled up out front to see the bevy of SRF's parked parked in Spec Racer Sport's garage. I met David, the owner, and he showed me around the place, including the blue and black number 9 car, which I would be driving for the day.

I took a minute to walked around and check the car out. It's a relatively simple car weighing 1,670lbs, with driver, and a 105hp 1.9L 4-cylinder Ford engine from the Ford Escort. 

No brake assist and inboard coilover suspension.

Once I was done taking pictures, David showed me upstairs to the clubhouse, located right above the garage on turn 16 of the racetrack- nice place. Spec Racer Sports also offers arrive-and-drive services, so you don't actually have to own a car. You can pay them to maintain, transport, and support a car for you at as many races as you care to fund. All you need to do is bring your checkbook, hop in, and drive. Now that's the way to race!

David briefed me on how the day would go (pretty much unlimited driving in the morning, stop for lunch, then unlimited driving in the afternoon) with the strong reminder that if I break it, I buy it. The cars are pretty tough, but it was crucial to not over-rev the motor; they had a memory tachometer installed on the car, and for each time I let the revs go above 6,000 rpm, I would be fined $100. Duly noted! I went to the locker room and suited up.

When I came back down, the car was fueled and ready for me to take out.

David told me to do a few laps easy to get used to the car and make sure it was running alright, then let 'er rip for 10-20 laps.

The car was a blast, although I was surprised at how loose (prone to oversteer, where the back of the car slides away in the turns) the setup was. When I mentioned it to David, they tweaked some settings to tighten it up a bit, but he said SRF's are fast when loose, and are generally driven with a lot of sliding. I'm dubious that this is actually true, but it didn't spoil the fun any- after all, it was just a test day, not a race.

I'd come in every now and then to refuel and take a break. While not as taxing to drive as a race kart, the SRF did take some physical effort, and I didn't want to get tired in the car and make an (expensive) mistake by crashing or over-revving.

During my last session of the day, one of the employees at Spec Racer Sports hopped in another SRF car to show me how it's done. It was extra enjoyable to have someone to race, although he was definitely faster than me, so I never really threatened to pass :)

Thanks, Spec Racer Sports, and to my wife! What a great day! I'll leave you with a video I shot with my Contour Roam action camera, mounted to my helmet: